Pluto, the manga based on the culturally iconic series Astro Boy, is receiving an anime adaptation on Netflix.
Anime Netflix announced Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki’s manga series Pluto will have an anime adaptation and premiere sometime in 2023 on the streaming platform. The trailer features Shinshu Fuji, Yoko Hikasa and Minori Suzuki, who voice Gesicht, Atom and Uran, respectively. A four-minute trailer showcases the spectacular animation visuals and a mysterious soundtrack, but there are no voices. Studio M2 will animate the series with GENCO as the producer.
According to Anime News Network, Urasawa expressed their excitement about the upcoming adaptation, saying they “applaud the courage of everyone that has taken on the challenge of making an anime based on Pluto.” Nagasaki said, “Pluto inherits the philosophy of Tezuka and does not merely convey a message of anti-war, but reminds us that there is suffering on both sides… but still, the only remaining answer is peace.” Macoto Tezka, who will supervise Pluto and is the son of the late Astro Boy mangaka Osamu Tezuka, added, “I can hardly wait to see how this new generation of anime turns out.”
What Is Pluto?
Pluto adapts “The Greatest Robot on Earth” arc from Tezuka’s Astro Boy and reimagines the story as a suspenseful murder mystery, starring Gesicht, a German robot inspector for Europol. The story depicts Gesicht, which translates to “face” in German, as a humanoid detective rather than the zirconium exterior that is in the original manga series. Gesicht must solve a string of robot and human deaths where the killer has shoved objects into the victims’ heads, creating makeshift horns. However, things get decidedly more complicated when evidence seems to point at a robot being the culprit, even though it has been almost a decade since a robot has killed a human.
The series ran from September 2003 to April 2009 in Big Comic Original and has eight tankōbon volumes. Urasawa initially pitched the idea for Pluto, intending for someone else to write it, and later on, after encouragement from other people, decided to recreate it himself. The series has sold over 8.5 million volumes and has collected awards and nominations including the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2005 and garnered critical acclaim for its engaging story and themes of anti-war, peace, hope and love.
Pluto premieres on Netflix in 2023.
Source: Twitter; Anime News Network
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